Contingencies Fund Advance: Independent Football Regulator
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)
I would like to notify the House that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has obtained approval for an advance from the contingencies fund of £3,470,000. The independent football regulator is being set up in parallel to the passage of the Football Governance Bill to help ensure that the regulatory regime is delivered as quickly as possible once the IFR is established in law. We have identified the need for targeted spend on delivery activity prior to Royal Assent of the Bill.
Parliamentary approval for additional £1,920,000 capital and £1,550,000 resource for this new service has been sought in a main estimate for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £3,470,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the contingencies fund.
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Grassroots Sport Facilities
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)
Grassroots sport has the power to bring people together, creating a healthier nation and increasing opportunities for communities across the UK.
As part of the Government’s plan for change, we are committed to supporting the growth of grassroots sport across the UK. We need to ensure that facilities are high quality, inclusive and provide opportunities for everyone to exercise in a safe environment. By investing in grassroots facilities, we will provide communities with social hubs and allow more people to get on to the pitch wherever they live.
We have today published updated lists of 1,650 projects funded by the multi-sport grassroots facilities programme across 2024-25. The programme delivers funding for communities across the UK through our delivery partners: the Football Foundation—a charity set up by the Government, the Football Association and the Premier League—in England, the Cymru Football Foundation in Wales, and the FAs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Projects aim to support activity in deprived areas, with a substantial proportion needing to provide for sports other than football, and to increase provision for under-represented groups such as women and girls. A full list of the projects can be found here www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025 and I will deposit a copy of this list in the Libraries of both Houses.
With an additional £98 million of funding to be invested in 2025-26, and as we look forward to UEFA Euro 2028, which will be jointly hosted by the UK and Ireland, and develop our bid to host the FIFA Women’s world cup in 2035, we will continue to put grassroots clubs and facilities at the front and centre of our ambition to get more people on to the pitch. Delivery partners are in the process of making decisions regarding 2025-26 funded projects, and lists will be further updated in due course.
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Protecting Our Oceans
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Reed)
The Government are committed to protecting the ocean. Marine protected areas are pivotal to our ambitions to preserve and improve our seas. They are central to our international commitment to protect 30% of global seas by 2030. We have built a comprehensive network of 181 MPAs covering 40% of English waters. Now we are focusing on making sure they are properly protected.
MPAs are protected from the point of designation by the planning and marine licensing regimes that cover activities such as dredging for aggregates and construction of offshore wind farms. Some fishing methods, especially bottom trawling, can have a significant impact on our MPAs, and the Government are legally obliged to address this. Fishing is of course an important source of food, and is critical to our coastal communities. We want to support fishing, encourage it to become more sustainable, and ensure it does not damage protected species and habitats.
We use an evidence-led process to identify the specific measures needed to safeguard our MPAs. We have made good progress. Currently, 60% of English MPAs are protected by byelaws that limit the use of damaging fishing gear, but we need to do more.
The Marine Management Organisation is undertaking a programme to roll-out byelaws to protect all our offshore MPAs where needed. The first two stages of this programme have been completed, with byelaws covering 17 offshore MPAs. Today it is starting a consultation on the third stage, the largest by far.
The proposed byelaws are to protect coarse, sandy and muddy seabed habitats and the species that live on and in them. These include: ocean quahog—which can live up to 100 years old; fan mussel—one of Britain’s largest and most threatened molluscs; and sea pens—part of the soft coral family, which can look like large feathers sticking up out of muddy seabeds. This is a substantial package of proposed measures. It covers a further 42 MPAs and includes proposals to stop bottom trawling over approximately 30,000 sq km, approximately 13% of English waters.
We appreciate that these potential measures would impact fishing fleets, both domestic and European. We encourage them to respond to the consultation, and everyone else who cares about supporting our coastal communities and protecting our seas should also have their say. We recently announced a £360 million fishing and coastal growth fund, in part to help modernise Britain’s fishing fleet.
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NHS Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025-2026
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)
Today I am updating the House on the publication of our NHS urgent and emergency care plan for 2025-26. This plan sets out the key actions and milestones across 2025 and 2026 that will support the NHS across England to improve the timeliness and delivery of care to patients requiring urgent and emergency care.
The most recent winter clearly showed that, despite the hard work and compassion shown by NHS staff up and down the country, patients did not receive the standard of care we all expect.
Every day, more than 140,000 people access urgent and emergency care services across England. Since 2010-11, demand has almost doubled, with ambulance service usage rising by 61%.
A&E waiting time standards have not been met for over a decade, while the 18-minute target for category 2 ambulance calls has never been hit outside the pandemic. We know that something has to change.
This Government have committed to a 10-year health plan, which will lead the NHS to meet the challenge set out in the plan for change, here www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-change to build an NHS that is fit for the future.
But we know that we cannot stand still. That is why we asked the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to work together to develop an urgent and emergency care plan for 2025-26.
This delivery plan focuses on improvement activity in line with the current round of NHS operational planning guidance. It is vital that we have clear, shared objectives, which is why we have instructed the NHS to focus as a whole system on those improvements that will have the biggest impact. We will make sure that this winter is significantly better than recent winters by setting ambitious but achievable targets and increasing transparency about progress.
In hospitals, the plan will ensure at least 78% of patients who attend an A&E department are seen within four hours—more than 800,000 people receiving more timely care than last year. To support care settings, the plan confirms that we will allocate almost £450 million of capital investment, including for same day emergency care and mental health crisis assessment centres, ensuring that patients who would otherwise be unnecessarily admitted to hospital can be assessed, diagnosed and treated on the same day and then discharged without an overnight stay.
We know that at least one in five people who attend A&E do not need urgent or emergency care, while an even larger number could be better cared for in the community. We will renew our focus on improving vaccine uptake, making it easier than ever to access vaccination appointments closer to home. We will also improve vaccination rates among health staff to prevent them from getting flu—reducing the number of sick days and ensuring that staff are well and able to care for patients across the busy winter period.
We will continue to invest in data and digital tools to speed up and improve patient care, ensuring that paramedics across the country can access patient records on the move, enabling them to provide better care and avoid unnecessary admissions.
These measures mark a fundamental shift in our approach to urgent and emergency care—moving from fragmented efforts to genuine collaboration across the whole system—and mean better co-ordination between NHS trusts and primary care to identify patients who are most vulnerable during winter.
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Taking Control of Goods Procedure: Reforms
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Sarah Sackman)
The Government are today announcing a balanced package of measures about the independent regulation of the enforcement sector and changes to the taking control of goods procedure. These measures aim to protect those facing enforcement action, enabling them to get debt support while ensuring that there is a fair system of enforcement so that public bodies and businesses can recover moneys owed to them.
Rights only exist if they can be enforced. That requires us to have an effective enforcement system—one that makes securing awards made by the courts straightforward and timely, while treating parties who owe money with dignity. A fair and stable enforcement system is one that can deliver better outcomes for all.
The private enforcement sector recovers a significant amount of debt each year, with a sizeable portion owed to local authorities and central Government, which is used to fund public services. There is, however, concern about the impact that some enforcement agencies are having on some vulnerable people in debt and those struggling to pay money owed. Many parties, including the Justice Committee and the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, have called for statutory independent regulation of the enforcement sector. The Civil Justice Council published a report in April 2025 which echoed that recommendation.
Although most enforcement agencies have already signed up to the Enforcement Conduct Board’s voluntary accreditation scheme and are funding its oversight activity, the Government believe that it is necessary to take action so that all enforcement agents, High Court enforcement officers and agencies are regulated to the same standards, overseen by the same independent body. The Government will today open a consultation about how to do so.
As set out in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s regulation action plan, when regulation is designed well it can be an essential tool to promote growth and investment and protect the public. We will introduce independent statutory regulation of the sector, in line with the objectives in the action plan and our work across Government to cut the administrative costs of regulation by 25% by the end of the Parliament. The consultation seeks views, among other things, on how to ensure that a regulator’s statutory objectives are targeted and proportionate, and to consider how it will be held to account for its performance.
The consultation will run for a six-week period. The Government welcome responses from everybody with an interest in this area. The responses will inform legislation to be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Alongside this, the Government have also published their response to a consultation that was held in 2023 about amending the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and intend to implement some interim reforms. These aim to increase the proportion of cases that settle at the earliest and cheapest stages of the enforcement process by, for example, extending the amount of notice that people must be given before an enforcement visit, giving them more time to access debt advice and/or set up a payment agreement.
We have also provided an update regarding the outcome of a 2023 review about the fees that the enforcement sector can recover from those facing enforcement, and plan to implement the following changes:
Uplifting the fixed fees that enforcement agents and High Court enforcement officers can recover from judgment debtors by 5%. This will be the first uplift to the fees since 2014. We consider it is necessary to do so to ensure that enforcement firms are adequately remunerated for the work they do in order to ensure the sustainability of the sector.
Uplifting by 24% the thresholds above which enforcement agents and High Courtenforcement officers can recover a percentage fee. The taking control of goods regulations specify that debts over the prescribed thresholds, that reach the enforcement stage, will attract an additional percentage fee of 7.5% of the value of the debt that is above the threshold. Uplifting the value of the thresholds will, therefore, reduce the proportion of cases that will incur this additional percentage fee.
The Government intend to lay a statutory instrument in Parliament to implement the fee uplifts and interim reforms as soon as parliamentary time allows.
The Government recognise concerns around the impact that certain collection and enforcement processes—in particular, council tax—have on vulnerable people. That is why we have also committed to consulting on modernising the administration of the council tax system, including the processes for collecting and enforcing council tax. The consultation will be published later this year by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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Online Safety: Super Complaints Mechanism
(5 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Feryal Clark)
I am repeating the following written ministerial statement made today in the other place by my noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch.
Today, I am laying before Parliament the draft Online Safety Super-Complaints (Eligibility and Procedural Matters) Regulations 2025. This important statutory instrument establishes the eligibility criteria and procedural framework for the super-complaints mechanism under the Online Safety Act 2023 and marks an important step forward in fully implementing the Act.
The super-complaints mechanism is a crucial aspect of the Act’s overall complaints handling, reporting and redress mechanisms. A well-functioning super-complaints regime will ensure a transparent and agile approach to online safety. It will perform a vital role in ensuring that eligible entities, such as civil society groups with expertise in online safety matters, can make complaints to Ofcom, the independent regulator for online safety. The regime will allow for complaints about features of regulated services or the conduct of providers, where they are, appear to be or present a material risk of causing significant harm to users or members of the public, significantly adversely affect their freedom of expression, or have other significant adverse impacts on users or members of the public.
This will ensure that Ofcom is aware of the issues users are facing, including issues that it might otherwise not have been made aware of. This process will also help Ofcom to focus priorities, target resources and recognise and eliminate systemic failings. It will also ensure that the voices of users, including vulnerable groups and children, are heard and can be acted upon, if necessary. Ofcom will be obliged to respond to super-complaints submitted by eligible entities within a specified timeframe. This instrument follows an eight-week consultation which ran from 16 November 2023 to 11 January 2024.
Eligibility criteria
The instrument I am laying before Parliament today sets out the criteria which an entity must meet in order to be considered eligible to submit a complaint:
The entity must be a body—such as a civil society group—which represents the interests of users of services regulated by the Act, or members of the public, or a particular group of users or members of the public.
The entity must be independent from the services regulated under the Act, although this does not prevent the entity receiving funding from these services or having representatives from these services involved in their governance, provided suitable mechanisms are in place to maintain independence.
The entity must demonstrate expertise in online safety matters, such as by routinely contributing as an expert to public discussions about online safety matters and media on the subject.
The entity can be relied upon to consider any guidance published by Ofcom.
The super-complaints regime is designed to be voluntary and to impose no significant burden on businesses, charities, or voluntary bodies. These regulations ensure that only eligible bodies, representing the interests of users or members of the public, can submit super-complaints about systemic online safety issues, thereby safeguarding the integrity and focus of the complaints process.
Admissibility
In addition to setting out eligibility criteria, this instrument also outlines the procedural steps required to submit an admissible complaint for consideration by Ofcom, as well as the requirements for how Ofcom must respond to such complaints.
Procedural requirements
Ofcom will determine the eligibility of an entity within 30 days, or 15 days if the entity was deemed eligible within the past five years and its circumstances have not changed.
Eligible entities will be required to ensure that evidence supporting the complaint is current, objective, and relevant. Where a complaint is submitted by an eligible entity, Ofcom is required to consider the complaint, including assessing the admissibility of the complaint itself, within a specified timeframe.
The whole super-complaints process must be typically completed within 120 days, or 105 days where an entity has retained eligibility status. Ofcom can stop the clock during the 90-day period in certain circumstances, or during the eligibility assessment period, such as if additional information is required and the complaint cannot be progressed without it. Entities may only submit one complaint every six months, though they can withdraw a complaint under consideration and submit a new one within six months if necessary. This will maximise the effectiveness of the regime and ensure that Ofcom is able to properly consider any complaints received. Ofcom will also have the power to reject complaints in specific circumstances, for example if the matter is already being considered by another court or regulator, or if a complaint merely repeats the substance of another complaint which has recently been considered.
Changes from consultation
A previous consultation ran from 16 November 2023 until 11 January 2024, and a separate policy response has been published. The responses we received were broadly in support of the proposals; however, we have made some notable changes based on feedback received to simplify the process and expand eligibility criteria— I am grateful to stakeholders for taking the time to share their thoughts and expertise, which have enabled us to make positive changes to the eligibility criteria and procedural matters. A full summary of changes is set out in the policy response, and includes:
Removing the statutory pre-notification period.
Reducing the initial assessment period for determining eligibility from 30 days to 15 days for organisations previously deemed eligible.
Placing restrictions on Ofcom’s ability to pause the timelines for determining eligibility or considering the complaint.
Expanding the eligibility criteria to include newer organisations that are experts in online safety matters, not just “experienced” ones that have a track record of publishing high-quality research and analysis, or collaborating with other organisations.
Altering the restriction on submitting multiple complaints within a six-month period, allowing entities to ask Ofcom to consider a new complaint—complaint B—instead of their initial complaint, complaint A.
Ofcom’s guidance
The regulations will commence on 31 December 2025. Ofcom will produce guidance, which it will consult on later in the year, to support organisations on the process of submitting a super-complaint.
Review and Monitoring
The impact of these regulations will be monitored as part of the broader review of the Act’s regulatory framework. The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology will carry out a review between two and five years after the full implementation of part 3 of the Act, ensuring that the regulations remain effective and relevant.
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